Additionally, companies have also announced dozens of "industry-specific LLMs" that link to their core model. However, investors and analysts say that most were yet to find viable business models, were too similar to each other and were now grappling with surging costs. Several other big name entrepreneurs and tech executives are behind new Chinese AI startups, such as Google China's former chief Kai-Fu Lee and Yan Juejie, a former vice-president of SenseTime (0020.HK). Others said that China's largest tech companies Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu ultimately had the biggest headstart and deep pockets to succeed, given their large user bases and wide range of services. For instance, they could easily offer generative AI services as an additional plug-in to their cloud users.

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Persons: Baidu's, Robin Li, Ernie Bot, Tingshu Wang, OpenAI's, Esme Pau, Pau, Yuan Hongwei, Meta, Baichuan, Wang Xiaochuan, China's, Wang, Yuan, Kai, Fu Lee, Yan Juejie, SenseTime, Tony Tung, Tung, Josh Ye, Brenda Goh, Sam Holmes Organizations: Baidu, REUTERS, HK, Huawei, Nvidia, China, Macquarie Group, Y, Baichuan Intelligence, Inc, Sogou, Google, Partners, Thomson Locations: Beijing, China, HONG KONG, Alibaba, United States, Washington, Shenzhen